Electronic reward system

Abstract

Data is detected from transaction systems, the data including a party's financial inflows, holding, outflows, payables and receivables. Data is also detected from location systems, the data including a party's proximity to a place or further party. Data is processed to determine if a reward should be triggered. Rewards are expressed as an amount of a virtual currency.

1 . A method performed by an electronic processing system, the method comprising:
 electronically storing information defining at least first and second criteria that must be satisfied by a user in order for a reward to be awarded,
 (i) the first criterion being that the user is at or has visited, or is or was within a predetermined proximity of, at least one of a) a specified physical or virtual location, b) a physical or virtual location meeting a specified criterion, c) a specified individual or d) an individual meeting a specified criterion, e) an event or type of event, and 
 (ii) the second criterion being that the user has participated in at least one activity, the at least one activity being one of (a) the user has surrendered value to, or received value from, another party or category of party (b) the user has been a party to a transaction with a particular party or category of party, (c) the user has conferred a benefit on another party or account balance criterion, or e) the user complied with a request benefiting another party or category of party, 
   and,   generating an electronic reward indication in response to a wholly-electronic determination that at least both the first and the second criteria have been satisfied.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein either or both of the at least first and second criteria are selected or specified using machine learning or artificial intelligence algorithms. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein either or both of the at least first and second criteria are selected or specified by an administrative party. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein either or both of the at least first and second criteria are selected or specified by a promoter party. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the activity criterion never includes a compulsory purchase where said promoter party of  claim 4  is the beneficial vendor party in said purchase. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the activity criterion never includes performance of a compulsory purchase transaction by the user for being awarded a reward where the system or the prompter party of  claim 4  who selected or specified a first or second criteria is the direct beneficial vendor in said compulsory purchase transaction. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  wherein an indicated reward is in the form of reward currency. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 6  wherein the reward currency is at least one of a) a coupon redeemable for at least a portion of the purchase price of particular products or services, b) a coupon redeemable for at least a portion of the purchase price of products or services offered by a particular party, c) virtual currency, d) scrip, e) note, f) a promise from a party to provide future value to the awarded party. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the wholly-electronic determination that the first criterion is satisfied is made using at least one of a) satellite-based positioning system derived coordinates data, b) mobile or other communications system coordinates derived data, c) data from a sensing, recognition or other detecting system, d) a proof of presence. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the virtual location is an on-line destination. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1  wherein either or both criterion further includes a number-of-times requirement. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1  wherein either or both criterion further includes a number-of-times-within-a-timeframe requirement. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the electronic surrendering is a selected one of a) incurring a charge in a credit account, b) incurring a charge in a non-credit account, c) surrendering virtual currency, d) surrendering non-virtual currency. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the reward currency is not indicated for the user, even though the first and second criteria have been satisfied, in response to a wholly-electronic determination that at least one particular award-negating event has occurred. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14  wherein the at least one award-negating event is that the user has participated in or not participated in a specified activity within a specified period of time. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14  wherein the at least one award-negating event is that the user has been proximate to in or not proximate to a specified location or party within a specified period of time. 
     
     
         17 . An electronic processing system including one or more processors and adapted to execute programming that
 electronically stores information defining at least first and second criteria that must be satisfied by a user in order for the reward to be awarded,
 (i) the first criterion being that the user must visit, or be within a predetermined proximity of, at least one of a) a specified physical or virtual location, b) a physical or virtual location meeting a specified criterion, c) a specified individual or d) an individual meeting a specified criterion, e) an event, and 
 (ii) the second criterion being that the user has participated in at least one activity, the at least one activity being one of (a) the user has surrendered value to, or received value from, another party or category of party (b) the user has been a party to a transaction with a particular party or category of party, (c) the user has conferred a benefit on specified account balance criterion, or e) the user complied with a request benefiting another party or category of party, 
   and,   generates an electronic indication in response to a wholly-electronic determination that at least both the first and the second criteria have been satisfied.